© NASA/Ricardo Nunes

Venus at dichotomy

Dominic Ford, Editor
From the Inner Planets feed

Objects: Venus
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Venus will reach half phase in its 2210–2211 morning apparition. It will be shining brightly at mag -4.4.

From Jacksonville , this apparition will be well placed and prominent, reaching a peak altitude of 44° above the horizon at sunrise on 7 Nov 2210.

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2210–2211 morning apparition of Venus

31 Aug 2210 – Venus at inferior solar conjunction
06 Oct 2210 – Venus at greatest brightness
07 Nov 2210 – Venus at highest altitude in morning sky
10 Nov 2210 – Venus at dichotomy
11 Nov 2210 – Venus at greatest elongation west
23 Jun 2211 – Venus at superior solar conjunction

A graph of the phase of Venus is available here.

Apparitions of Venus

17 Nov 2208 – Evening apparition
08 Apr 2209 – Morning apparition
23 Jun 2210 – Evening apparition
11 Nov 2210 – Morning apparition
29 Jan 2212 – Evening apparition
19 Jun 2212 – Morning apparition
02 Sep 2213 – Evening apparition

Observing Venus

Venus's orbit lies closer to the Sun than the Earth's, meaning that it always appears close to the Sun and is lost in the Sun's glare much of the time.

It is observable for a few months each time it reaches greatest separation from the Sun – moments referred to as greatest elongation. These apparitions repeat roughly once every 1.6 years.

On these occasions, Venus is so bright and conspicuous that it becomes the third brightest object in the sky after the Sun and Moon. It is often called the morning star or the evening star.

Venus's phase

Venus's phase varies depending on its position relative to the Earth. When it passes between the Earth and Sun, for example, the side that is turned towards the Earth is entirely unilluminated, like a new moon.

Conversely, when it lies opposite to the Earth in its orbit, passing almost behind the Sun, it appears fully illuminated, like a full moon. However, at this time it is also at its most distant from the Earth, so it is actually fainter than at other times.

Venus shows an intermediate half phase – called dichotomy – at roughly the same moment that it appears furthest from the Sun, at greatest elongation. The exact times of the two events may differ by a few days, only because Venus's orbit is not quite perfectly aligned with the ecliptic.

Venus's position

The coordinates of Venus when it reaches dichotomy will be:

Object Right Ascension Declination Constellation Angular Size
Venus 11h54m00s 1°28'N Virgo 24.5"
Sun 14h48m 16°12'S Libra 32'16"

The coordinates above are given in J2000.0.

The sky on 3 Jul 2024

The sky on 3 July 2024
Sunrise
06:26
Sunset
20:32
Twilight ends
22:08
Twilight begins
04:49

27-day old moon
Waning Crescent

4%

27 days old

Planets
Rise Culm. Set
Mercury 07:58 14:54 21:50
Venus 07:03 14:03 21:04
Moon 03:57 11:21 18:50
Mars 02:57 09:39 16:21
Jupiter 04:10 11:05 18:00
Saturn 00:13 06:01 11:50
All times shown in EDT.

Source

The circumstances of this event were computed using the DE430 planetary ephemeris published by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).

This event was automatically generated by searching the ephemeris for planetary alignments which are of interest to amateur astronomers, and the text above was generated based on an estimate of your location.

Related news

07 Nov 2210  –  Venus at highest altitude in morning sky
11 Nov 2210  –  Venus at greatest elongation west
29 Jan 2212  –  Venus at greatest elongation east
10 Feb 2212  –  Venus at highest altitude in evening sky

Image credit

© NASA/Ricardo Nunes

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Jacksonville

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30.33°N
81.66°W
EDT

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